Missouri Tigers will be down two starters for Gator Bowl vs. Virginia
Mizzou football will be without a pair of starters in the Gator Bowl.
Linebacker Josiah Trotter will be held out of the game due to a “minor” knee injury he suffered against Arkansas, one that coach Eli Drinkwitz said he played through. Losing Trotter is a sizable blow to MU’s defense, as Trotter leads the team in total tackles with 84 (the next closest is defensive back Santana Banner with 51).
This could mark the end of Trotter’s collegiate career, as he’s three years removed from high school, thus making him eligible for the NFL Draft. While he took a medical redshirt in his true freshman season at West Virginia in 2023, that only preserves a year of NCAA eligibility.
Trotter has only missed two-and-a-half quarters the entire season. He was ejected for targeting early in the second quarter of Mizzou’s contest against Mississippi State on Nov. 15. The Tigers’ defense ended up being fine, as two pick-sixes in the second half helped MU to a 49-27 win.
Tight end Brett Norfleet will also miss the Gator Bowl with a shoulder injury. Norfleet got hurt Oct. 25 against Vanderbilt, missed MU’s next game against Texas A&M but played in the final three regular-season games. Drinkwitz said that Norfleet had his injury “repaired.”
Norfleet will finish the season with 31 receptions, 254 receiving yards and a team-high five receiving touchdowns.
Mizzou will also be without offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Kirby Moore, who accepted the vacant head coach position at Washington State over the weekend. Thus, Moore will not coach MU in the Gator Bowl.
As for who’ll call plays against UVA, Drinkwitz jokingly said that they’ll flip a coin to decide. On a serious note, he wasn’t entirely sure who’ll take on that responsibility.
“We’re putting it together, honestly,” Drinkwitz said. “Staff collaboration is probably one of the best things we do here in how we design and operate the game plan. ... We’ll work through that the rest of this week as we’re going through who’s calling, talking to the quarterback, all that stuff.”
Several coaches on MU’s staff have previous experience as an offensive coordinator, including Drinkwitz, who held the title at three different spots: Springdale High School in Arkansas (2007-09), Boise State (2015) and NC State (2016-18). Drinkwitz was also the co-offensive coordinator at Arkansas State in 2013.
Elsewhere, wide receivers coach Jacob Peeler was the offensive coordinator at Texas State from 2020-21. He was also the co-offensive coordinator at Ole Miss in 2019. MU assistant Sean Gleeson was the offensive coordinator at Fairleigh Dickinson (2011-12), Princeton (2017-18), Oklahoma State (2019) and Rutgers (2020-22).
On a more permanent note, Drinkwitz mentioned that redshirt-freshman edge rusher Javion Hilson intends to enter the transfer portal, which hadn’t been previously reported. Drinkwitz said that he hadn’t been practicing with the team as of late.
Hilson was a four-star recruit in the class of 2025, ranked as the No. 8 edge rusher nationally. He committed to MU last December after decommitting from Florida State in Sept. 2024.
As of Saturday afternoon, five MU players who were on the 2025 roster have reportedly entered the transfer portal: a pair of wideouts (Josh Manning and James Madison II), a pair of running backs (Marquise Davis and Brendon Haygood) and Hilson.
Copyright 2025 Columbia Missourian
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Missouri Tigers will be down two starters for Gator Bowl vs. Virginia."